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Detroit, 4:23 AM
Wed Dec 2
30 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/02/09
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Wonderfully odd and cool car. I still can't decide whether it's astonishingly beautiful or horrifically ugly. After almost 40 years of seeing these in pictures and on the street, it still fascinates me. If I owned one, I'd be enough of a philistine to junk that Maser engine and put in a more powerful and reliable unit, like a Honda V6. Yes, that would probably involve major surgery, but I'd want to drive the SM daily. I would also try to dig up an all-glass Euro nose.
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@beercheck:
Don't forget about the rear...
(wiki: 1.8 million cars produced)
10/02/09
It always brings a little joy to me attending the auto shows to see the French booths. I know they will have at least one crazy concept car. I just wish we could see some of those in production someday....
10/02/09
@Peugeot--Fire Marshall Bill Approved:
Have you seen the Citroën C6? It's a competitor for cars like the Audi A6 and MB E-class, it has been on sale for some years now (in Europe), but you hardly ever see a C6 on the road (in Europe). Buyers in this segment are way too conservative nowadays. When innovative and bold design is unable to sell cars, it's being discarded. Sadly.
10/02/09
@duurtlang: You mean like this one? I drove this one around for a week in the Loire Valley. I drove it for one day in Paris and scratched the hell out of it. (I'll be lucky to have Citroen loan a car to me again to test drive.) I wouldn't go so far as saying though that the C6 has a completely innovative and bold design. It is a slight departure and movement in the right direction, but it doesn't have that wow factor that a SM or DS had.
10/02/09
10/02/09
I don't know about the Peugeots, but Citroëns from the last few decades really weren't that bad. They just needed to be looked after, which many owners failed to do properly. The larger ones just aren't the carefree appliances Toyota produces. I don't think they deserve the bad reputation they have. Renault screwed up around 2001, but they are unrelated to PSA. Citroëns designed in the seventies and before tended to rust extensively, but they stopped that for the models introduced in the eighties and later.
Personally I've got some experience with 2 hydropneumatic Citroens. One my parents owned when I was 18 and got my licence (~2001), a diesel which was still in great shape when they sold it with 330k (km) on the odo. The other one is the daily driver of a friend of mine that I talked him into. A 500 euro problem-free 93 gasoline BX which does 40 mpg (US) on the highway and has 200k (km) on the odo.
@ Peugeot--Fire Marshall Bill Approved
I agree that the SM and especially the DS were more radical. But the C6 is still very unconventionally styled by today's standards
10/02/09
I want an SM. I'm into SM.
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10/02/09
...and I've never seen any Citroen in person ever. Once in a blue moon, I see a 505 or an Alliance, but that's it. Oh, and my girlfriend's folks' smart fortwo was assembled in France. That's the extent of my exposure to French motoring, unfortunately.
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10/02/09
Well to ease your pain: I cannot remember ever having seen an Oldsmobile, Buick, Edsel, Saturn or a 21st century muscle car in real life.
10/02/09
I'm 5-6 hours' drive to the east from there (western NY), and already made plans.
I've seen more street-parked E-types (one, in Rochester, NY) than I have Citroens.
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[users.skynet.be]
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I've always loved the view from the inside:
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10/02/09
Also, am I crazy for also checking out the Allante? It's no SM, but it's still earned a place in the Parthenon of misguided FWD luxury cars.
10/02/09
A Citroen SM. One of the few cars my mother recognizes on sight. A study in French avant-garde styling. Glorious. Sculpted. Complex and sophisticated.
I said, "Ahhh."
It could have been the coffee. It's very good coffee.
But it was the car. For an SM, it will always be the car.
10/02/09
06/30/09
07/01/09